Willow Mercy
Willow Mercy is an original character in the series. Typically depicted as a professionally-aired yet snarky woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, she has studied science and medicine for years before entering risky business involving illegal drugs.She is a rather snide or condescending character, often making sarcastic remarks even when they are not due. Though Willow shows many signs of being on the good spectrum regarding alignment, in some cases she is depicted as being True Neutral. Half-Life Universe Among the most philanthropic investors for the science and research facility of Aperture Science, Willow lived out most of her days at her high end flat in Washington, D.C. Willow Mercy finished high school early at the age of 17, and went onto a healthy degree in science; namely physics and biology. She was employed as a mere intern at first at Aperture Science for two years during schooling. After her contract was spent, the company seemed very pleased with their new asset and decided to give her a full time job upon the completion of school Willow quickly soared to the relative glass ceiling that was the top, but it was still not enough to meet her expensive, materialistic needs. Willow would often back mail her fellow employees from a very early start, being the sly scientist she was, and as a result would be promoted or bribed just to keep her whistleblowing mouth shut. Willow would almost always use false evidence, often with difficult loopholes that were crazy to get out of, sometimes even going so far as to drug someone’s drink. However, all of this was still yet not enough. She had the money from her silver tongue as well as from her job – but she ''had ''to have more. It wouldn’t be until she had every brand of designer fashion, until she had the biggest flat screen, until even her cat ate the finest of gourmet brands of kitty food. Willow would try to endlessly fill the void in her life with materialistic goods, telling herself that one day she will have it all and she can die happy – even as a virgin. So Willow turned to a darker end of the spectrum. After reconnecting with one of her more deviant science professors, Willow quickly collaborated to build her own recipe for many narcotics from methamphetamine to cocaine rarely. After the '''immediate '''rise in stock in Aperture Science due to the resonance cascade at the Black Mesa research facility, Willow finally saw things as looking up. Very soon, she stopped making her “product” herself and bought six storage units in the Westend of D.C, and hired workers to make it and distribute it for her. In early 2014, after the seven-hour war and the full throttle of the Combine Occupation, Willow was once again at the bottom. Though devastating for her, she eventually found the City 17 Resistance and joined up as a scientist and tech specialist, rarely going out on field as her methods of leadership were deemed self-centered, fanatic and above all unfair. Though she had expertise in the art of war and the tactical brain of a computer, the lack of numbers in the rebellion nullified a lot of her strategies. Eventually, she met Charlie Sykes in the resistance through one of her other friends, and they quickly fell in love, working hand-in-hand in the resistance: Charlie out on the field and Willow in the laboratory. Charlie would later deliver a rare occurrence: an Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle (OSIPR, or AR2) to Willow. Though she was breathless, it did take some time to crack but once she finally did, she kept it for herself. Fallout A descendant of a very wealthy governmental politician, Willow was born into an unlabelled Vault along with many other descendants of the American government. Though Willow typically wears reading glasses, in this rendition she near-sighted and must wear glasses constantly. Having worked at Camp Navarro for many years before finally traveling to Nevada, Willow was an adept scientist and an expert in robotics and power armor. She is credited as being one of the many who worked on perfecting the X-01 power armor after the Great War of 2077, She departed her Enclave haven in California shortly before the destruction of Poseidon Oil Rig and joined the Followers of the Apocalypse at the age of 21 in Nevada, at the Old Mormon Fort. There, she put her science skills to use while keeping her true, American identity a secret while other followers were none the wiser. After hearing word of the destruction of the Enclave in the west, Willow ultimately set aside her past for everyone but herself. Rarely she thinks about her previous life, and more so remains an American patriot while helping those in need, occasionally botching jobs involving junkies who wouldn't lay off. Gunsmoke A science woman and a devil-tongue at any rate, Willow Mercy was an asset but often seen in a mediocre light. Her lack of an actual, legitimate degree in most areas made her out to be scam-worthy in the eyes of many science facilities across Fornacis, which would turn her to cooking skag in a den. If you asked her before the SVC raid, she would tell you that it may not be honest but it is easy and it pays out the ass. She was always seen with augmented vision, and she claims she lost her eyes in a science accident when she was very young. It was at this skag den Willow met Carl Car-Windows, someone who would become very close friends with Willow as they shared similar interests in science and doubledollars. Though her co-workers were sloppy and hardly knew a sliver of ''real ''science, it’s work, and Willow needed the money to eventually open her own facility, one day. All this would come tumbling down on Willow. In the rainy season one dark night, Scarlet Viper Company raided the skag den she and Car-Windows were working at. Eventually, all but Mercy and Car-Windows were killed… Out-pinned, out-manned and out-gunned, they surrendered whole-heartedly to the mercy of the Scarlet Viper Company. The mercenaries involved decided to take back the two for questioning at the SVC hideout in the Frontier. Michaelis, Quyen and Reisende judged Mercy and Car-Windows as convicted after the fact – merely an asset of convenience for both them and the skag-den at the time. As a result, they were both allowed to live and be set free, Michaelis even offering a spot in the Scarlet Viper Company for both of them. Willow refused, and eventually worked with a Suhn in order to cook more product though this time in private, while posing as a local, free doctor in the Frontier, courtesy of the SVC. This Suhn, Bravo, gave Willow a much larger cut than the den ever did, in addition to even buying some himself from time to time. Eventually, Bravo and Willow parted ways when she had amassed enough money, and she opened the Mercy research facility in lower, underground Novobrazil. The facility specializes in bioengineering and chemistry, and from time to time Willow still sends skag Bravo’s way. Willow eventually began to become very spiritual with herself when she finally scraped together her facility from skag-riches and bank loans she would eventually have to pay back, taking up Hazdan tradition under her belt as it seemed to properly align with her goals. She survived mostly on her own, one of the only other run-ins with the SVC being the Botched Science Team job, involving the stealthy assassination of a rather annoying scientist whom was a thorn in Willow’s side. USCSS: The Osiris Her father being the founder and proprietor of business superpower Mercy & Associates, Willow took over the company's reign in 2029. Ever since 2025 however, stock has been going down exponentially in light of the colonization and manufacturing projects and contracts worked on by Harisson & Goodman and Davison Enterprise, Mercy & Associates paled in comparison as money slowly trickled away. It was not long before the company was bankrupt, and forced to give in. Through either luck, or perhaps extreme uncertainty, M&A was acquired by Davison Enterprise to create Davison & Mercy (D&M) A research and business conglomerate now given the task of finishing the colonization contract set by the United States Government ever since the year 1983. Willow Mercy is severely augmented, and has been since a young age. She is one of the heads of the company, and operates on a large salary. Trivia